Geoinformatics and the landscape of Neolithic Thessaly

Apostolos Sarris of the University of Cyprus and the Foundation for Research and Technology in Crete presents multi-method geoinformatics research on the Neolithic settlements of Thessaly in Greece, from the seventh to the fourth millennium BC.

Sarris outlines how GPS survey mapped 342 sites across the plains of Larissa and Karditsa, combined with multispectral and hyperspectral satellite imagery, historical aerial photographs from the Greek Army and the Royal Air Force, and a CORONA satellite atlas of Greece covering 1961 to 1972. Ground-based geophysical prospection targeted twenty-one Neolithic settlements in eastern Thessaly, using multi-sensor fluxgate gradiometry, ground-penetrating radar, electromagnetic induction, soil coring for magnetic susceptibility and phosphate analysis, and drone imagery.

Case studies show how tells (magoules) and flat extended settlements coexisted within systems of concentric ditches and enclosures, with burnt daub houses on the mounds often surrounded by unburnt stone-founded structures on the outskirts. Sarris connects the high-temperature magnetic anomalies of burnt houses with Balkan evidence for deliberate firing of dwellings, describes machine-learning experiments to classify magnetic features, and examines the function of the encircling ditches. Using digital elevation models and hydrological simulations of the Pineios River and Lake Karla, he argues that the ditches served as flood countermeasures maintained within generational memory. The talk closes with 3D visibility and space-syntax analysis of settlement layouts and a discussion of Bronze Age continuity, palaeoclimate coring, social organisation, Zerelia and Neolithic cemeteries.